


from this day forward

by ottermo



Series: As Prompted [57]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post Series 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-14 06:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14130522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottermo/pseuds/ottermo
Summary: Karen and Sam have each other now.





	from this day forward

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Week 3, Day 4 of the Humans 4-Week Challenge. The prompt was ‘Family’.

He is charging, but alert, his green eyes watching her with newborn curiosity as she tidies up the flat. It’s the first time he’s been quiet since the initial shock had worn off in the car - and it seems almost eerie now, not to be able to hear what he’s thinking. Karen gives up on her chore and goes to sit with him on the sofa, picking up her own charging lead where it had fallen.

“What’s this? Have you run out of questions for me?” she asks, smiling.

Sam turns to look at her. “I just have one more,” he says.

Concern fills her mind when she realises that he’s nervous. He might not know the word for it yet, but that’s what she’s seeing, and she can’t bear to have him nervous of her.

“What is it?” she asks, more softly. She lifts a hand to touch his cheek, a caress like the ones Beatrice used to give Leo. Most of the time she keeps those foreign memories hidden, but somehow when Sam’s around, she feels closer to Beatrice than ever. Maternal programming. It’s there at her core, inherent in everything. “You can tell me, Sam. I don’t know all the answers yet, but you can ask me anything you want.”

He looks back at her, still visibly apprehensive.

“Are you going to keep me?”

Her eyes widen in dismay, that he’d even have to ask that, but before she can respond, he’s talking again.

“I have been assessing the changes, and I understand now that I am broken. If this malfunction cannot be reversed, will you still want me with you?” Again, there’s no time for her to answer. His voice is still rising, heading straight for panic. “I understand if you do not. There are many factors that would compromise my ability to fulfill–”

“Sam,” she says, cutting him off, though her own voice is strained. “You can stop, it’s alright. I’m never going to send you away. We need each other, you and me.”

He stares at her. Karen moves her hand from his face to his shoulder, and draws him close to her. “You’re not broken,” she says. “You’re alive. You’re just like me, now, a synthetic who can think and feel. We’re the same.”

She pauses, not wanting to delve too deeply into what she’d almost had him do today, but conscious that it was having an impact on this conversation, even so. “I used to think I’d always be alone. It’s not a nice feeling. But that’s all in the past. We’re a family now, the two of us.”

They are quiet for some time after that, taking in power, through wires and through each other.


End file.
